Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Google Map of Nazi Members

Spod.cxA UK map developer created a Google Maps mash-up showing the addresses of members of the British National Party (a neo-Nazi political organisation). He created the map from a leaked list of the BNP's members.

The creator of the map has now taken down the map because of some of his readers' concerns:

"Many people have commented that the map does give a false impression of accuracy, despite my making this clear, and I'm tempted to agree. I do not want to single anybody out and by removing the accuracy from the map it is possible that it ends up incorrectly implying a property contains a BNP member. It has been suggested that an inaccurate map that doesn't make that clear is worse than publishing the list itself, and I think that's a reasonable comment."

Spod.cx has therefore replaced the original Google Map with a non-Google heat map showing those areas in the UK with strong BNP support.

It seems to me that most of the complainers to Spod.cx were happy that the BNP members addresses were revealed but less happy that the present inaccuracy of geo-coding could lead to cases of mistaken identity.

UK TechCrunch has been following the story closely all day and has even managed to interview the map creator (by e-mail). It has also begun to identify some of the other mash-ups (LOLCats Nazis anyone) being created with the leaked BNP membership list.

The story has also now made it onto the websites of most of the major newspapers in the UK.